Ángel Maturino Reséndiz Explained

Ángel Maturino Reséndiz
Charge:Serial murder, sexual assault
Alias:Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, Ángel Reyes Reséndiz
Birth Name:Ángel Leoncio Reyes Reséndiz
Birth Date:August 1, 1959
Birth Place:Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, Mexico
Death Place:Huntsville Unit, Huntsville, Texas, U.S.
Cause:Execution by lethal injection
Killings:15-22 and span of crimes = 1986-1999
Date:1991-2000
Conviction Penalty:Death
Status:Executed
Conviction:Capital murder

Angel Maturino Reséndiz (August 1, 1959 – June 27, 2006), also known as The Railroad Killer, was a Mexican serial killer suspected in as many as 23 murders across the United States and Mexico during the 1990s, some of which involved sexual assault. He had become known as "The Railroad Killer", as most of his crimes were committed near railroads, where he had jumped off the trains which he was using to travel around the country.

On June 21, 1999, he briefly became the 457th fugitive listed by the FBI on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, before he surrendered to the Texas authorities on July 13, 1999. He was convicted of capital murder in Texas, and executed by lethal injection in 2006.

Personal life

Ángel Leoncio Reyes Recendiz was born in Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, Mexico.[1] [2] [3]

Murders and methodology

By illegally jumping on and off trains within and across Mexico, Canada, and the United States, generally crossing borders illegally, Reséndiz was able to evade authorities for a considerable time. He used many aliases, but was chiefly known and sought after as Rafael Resendez-Ramirez. His birth name was Ángel Leoncio Reyes Recendis. United States government records show that he had been deported to Mexico at least four times since first entering the U.S. in 1973.[4]

Reséndiz killed at least 15 people[5] with rocks, a pickaxe, and other blunt objects, mainly in their homes. He was sometimes referred to as The Railway Killer or The Railcar Killer. After each murder, he would linger in the homes for a while, mainly to eat. Reséndiz took sentimental items, and also laid out the victims' driver's licenses to learn about their lives. He stole jewelry and other items, and gave them to his wife and mother, who lived in Rodeo, Durango, Mexico. Much of the jewelry was sold or melted down. After Reséndiz's surrender, some of the stolen items that had been removed from his victims' homes were returned by his wife and mother. Money was sometimes left at the scene. He raped some of his female victims; however, rape was probably a secondary intent. As Reséndiz himself was of small stature, he did not attack large victims, who could have overpowered him. Most of his victims were found covered with a blanket, or otherwise obscured from immediate view.[6]

Victims

NumberNameSexAgeDate of MurderLocationNotes
1Unidentified womanFUnknownUnknown date in 1986Bexar County, TexasShot four times with a .38-caliber weapon, with her body dumped in an abandoned farmhouse. Reséndiz stated that he met the woman at a homeless shelter. They took a motorcycle trip together, bringing a gun along to fire for target practice. Reséndiz said that he shot and killed the woman for disrespecting him.[7] Remains of Jane Doe found March 23, 1986
2Unidentified manMUnknownUnknown date in 1986Bexar County, TexasSupposedly the boyfriend of the previous victim. Reséndiz said he shot and killed him, and dumped his body in a creek somewhere between San Antonio and Uvalde. Reséndiz said that he killed the man because the man was involved in black magic. This man's body has never been found, and nothing is known about him, except what Reséndiz told authorities. Reséndiz confessed to these first two murders in September 2001, in hopes that doing so would hasten his execution.
3Michael WhiteM22July 19, 1991San Antonio, TexasBludgeoned to death with a brick. His body was found in the front yard of an abandoned downtown house. Reséndiz also confessed to this murder in September 2001. During this confession, he drew a map of the crime scene, and claimed that he killed White because he was homosexual.[8]
4 Jesse HowellM19March 23, 1997Bludgeoned to death with a railcar air brake hose coupling, and left beside the railroad tracks that ran through Belleview.[9] Howell had travelled to Florida from Illinois with his fiancé, Wendy Von Huben, who was also murdered by Reséndiz shortly after Howell's death. Reséndiz claimed to investigators that he killed the couple because he believed they were "anti-Christians".
5Wendy Von HubenF16March 23, 1997Ocala, FloridaRaped, strangled, suffocated both manually and with duct tape, and buried in a shallow grave in Sumter County, Florida.[10] Von Huben and her fiancé, Jesse Howell, had met Reséndiz near Jacksonville. Hoping to find work picking oranges, the teenaged couple had caught a ride aboard a train's grain car that was also occupied by Reséndiz.[11] He claimed that his motive for their murders was his assumption of Von Ruben and Howell being "anti-Christians".
6Roberto CastroM54July 5, 1997Colton, CaliforniaA drifter beaten to death with a piece of plywood in a rail yard. Though not officially charged, Reséndiz is considered the prime suspect in this case.
7Christopher MaierM21August 29, 1997Lexington, KentuckyA University of Kentucky student walking along nearby railroad tracks with his girlfriend, 20-year-old Holly Dunn Pendleton, when the two were attacked by Reséndiz, who bludgeoned Maier to death with a 52-pound rock. Reséndiz raped and severely beat Pendleton, who nearly died. Pendleton, the only known survivor of Resèndiz's killings, went on to appear on the Biography channel television programs I Survived..., , and the ID channel series Dates from Hell ("A Killer Night") and People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer; her story was also told in the UK newspaper The Guardian.
8Leafie MasonF87October 4, 1998Hughes Springs, TexasBeaten to death with an antique fire iron after entering her house through a window.
9Fannie Whitney ByersF81December 10, 1998Carl, GeorgiaBludgeoned to death with a tire rim in her home, which was located near CSX Transportation railroad tracks. A Lexington couple was charged with Byers' murder, but according to authorities, Reséndiz admitted to an FBI agent that he killed her.[12]
10Claudia BentonF39December 17, 1998West University Place, TexasA pediatric neurologist at the Baylor College of Medicine who was raped, stabbed, and bludgeoned repeatedly with a statue after Reséndiz entered her home near the Union Pacific railroad tracks. Police found Benton's Jeep Cherokee in San Antonio and found Reséndiz's fingerprints on the steering column. At the time of the murder, Reséndiz had a warrant for his arrest for burglary, but not yet for murder.
11Norman J. SirnicM46May 2, 1999Weimar, TexasNorman J. Sirnic and his wife Karen Sirnic were bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer in the parsonage of the United Church of Christ. The Sirnics' red Mazda was found in San Antonio three weeks later, and fingerprints linked their case with Claudia Benton's murder.
12Karen SirnicF47
13Noemi DominguezF26June 4, 1999Houston, TexasBludgeoned to death with a pickaxe in her apartment. Dominguez was a schoolteacher at Houston Independent School District's Benjamin Franklin Elementary School. Seven days later, her white Honda Civic was discovered by state troopers on the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
14Josephine KonvickaF73June 4, 1999Dubina, TexasBludgeoned with the same pickaxe used to kill Dominguez in her farmhouse near Weimar, which is also where the Sirnics were murdered. Reséndiz tried to steal Konvicka's car but could not find the car keys.
15George Morber Sr.M80June 15, 1999Shot in the head with a shotgun. The house was located only 100 yards (90 m) away from a railroad track. Later police found Morber's red pickup truck in Cairo, Illinois, located 60 miles south of Gorham. In addition, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office found fingerprints in the Morbers' ransacked home, positively identifying Reséndiz as the killer.[13]
16Carolyn FrederickF52June 15, 1999Gorham, IllinoisBludgeoned to death with the same shotgun used in the Morber killing.

Reséndiz was tried and sentenced to death for the Benton murder.[14]

Arrest and trial

Prior to surrendering at the El Paso bridge, the U.S. Border Patrol had arrested Reséndiz and deported him back to Mexico. Reséndiz's sister, Manuela, had seen her brother's FBI's Most Wanted Poster and feared that her brother might kill someone else, or be killed by Mexican bounty hunters, so she contacted the police. On July 12, 1999, a Texas Ranger, Drew Carter, accompanied by Kimberley Barkhausen (FBI), Manuela and a spiritual guide, met up with Reséndiz on a bridge connecting El Paso, Texas with Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Reséndiz surrendered to Carter.[15]

During a court appearance, Reséndiz accused Carter of lying under oath because Reséndiz's family was under the impression that he would be spared the death penalty. Reséndiz's ultimate fate, however, was decided by a jury, not Carter.[16] In 1999, former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox, wary of the controversy miring the many confessions and recantations by serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, remarked of Reséndiz, "I hope they don't start pinning on him every crime that happens near a railroad track."[17] [18]

Mexican government response

Reséndiz's defense attorney along with the assistance of Mexican consul-general in Houston Rodulfo Figueroa Aramoni (consul general, 1998–1999) and other Mexican government officials combined efforts to negotiate with the state of Texas for an extradition to Mexico in hopes to spare Reséndiz's life from the death penalty.

In 2006, Mexican presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said at a press conference that Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez had contacted then Texas Governor Rick Perry to ask for clemency for Maturino Reséndiz.

"We will continue fighting (for the condemned man) because we believe that the death penalty does not solve absolutely anything," Mexican presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said.[19]

He was sentenced to death on May 22, 2000, by a Texas court.

Mental health

On June 21, 2006, a Houston judge ruled that Reséndiz was mentally competent to be executed.[20] Upon hearing the judge's ruling, Reséndiz said, "I don't believe in death. I know the body is going to go to waste. But me, as a person, I'm eternal. I'm going to be alive forever." He also described himself as half-man and half-angel and told psychiatrists he could not be executed because he did not believe he could die.[21] These and similar statements led Dr. Pablo Stewart, a bilingual psychiatrist who evaluated Reséndiz on two occasions in 2006, to conclude that Reséndiz was not then competent to be executed as "...delusions had completely taken over [Reséndiz's] thought processes..."[22]

Execution

Despite an appeal pending with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Reséndiz's death warrant was signed for the murder of Claudia Benton. He was housed in the Polunsky Unit in West Livingston, Texas awaiting execution. He was executed in the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas, on June 27, 2006, by lethal injection.

In his final statement, Reséndiz said, "I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me. You don't have to. I know I allowed the Devil to rule my life. I just ask you to forgive me and ask the Lord to forgive me for allowing the devil to deceive me. I thank God for having patience in me. I don't deserve to cause you pain. You do not deserve this. I deserve what I am getting." Reséndiz was pronounced dead at 8:05 p.m. CDT (01:05 UTC) on June 27, 2006.[23] Claudia Benton's husband, George, was present at the execution and said Reséndiz was "evil contained in human form, a creature without a soul, no conscience, no sense of remorse, no regard for the sanctity of human life."[24]

Media

The Reséndiz case was featured in:

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Case Details. Hcdistrictclerk.com. January 21, 2018.
  2. Web site: Items seized could aid railway killings probe. CNN. January 30, 1999. January 21, 2018.
  3. Web site: Angel Maturino Resendiz: The Railroad Killer – Terror Near the Tracks – Crime Library. December 23, 2014. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150103131128/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/resendez/track_1.html. January 3, 2015.
  4. Web site: The Rafael Resendez-Ramirez Case: A Review of the INS's Actions and the Operation of Its IDENT Automated Fingerprint Identification System. US Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. November 19, 2014.
  5. Web site: 'Railroad Killer' faces execution . June 30, 2006 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060630114834/http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/26/railroad.killer.ap/index.html . June 30, 2006. CNN. June 27, 2006.
  6. Web site: Angel Maturino Resendiz #1028 . www.clarkprosecutor.org.
  7. Web site: Case File 76UFTX. The Doe Network. May 10, 2014.
  8. Web site: Angel Maturino Resendiz #1028. Clarkprosecutor.org. January 21, 2018.
  9. Web site: 16 July 2000 . Railroad Killer Helps Find Girl's Corpse . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230320040631/https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96493&page=1 . 20 March 2023 . 18 March 2023 . ABC News.
  10. Web site: The end of the line . Ocala.com . December 23, 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060727084910/http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20060625%2FNEWS%2F206250380%2F1001%2FNEWS01 . July 27, 2006 .
  11. Web site: 16 July 2000 . Remains found in Wildwood after railway killer's confession . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230320040131/https://www.theledger.com/story/news/2000/07/16/remains-found-in-wildwood-after-railway-killers-confession/26519712007/ . 20 March 2023 . 18 March 2023 . The Ledger.
  12. Web site: Judge says killer sane enough for execution. Onlineathens.com. January 21, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20171213084032/http://onlineathens.com/stories/062306/news_20060623061.shtml. December 13, 2017. dead.
  13. Web site: FOXNews.com - 'Railroad Killer'Still Pains Ill. Town. Foxnews.com. December 23, 2014.
  14. Web site: Resendiz found guilty of murder - UPI Archives . UPI . en.
  15. Web site: Mutual trust helped Texas Ranger get his man. Morris. Jim. July 14, 1999. CNN. 5 November 2021.
  16. Web site: Resendiz gets death – Lubbock Online – Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Mark. Babineck. Lubbockonline.com. January 21, 2018.
  17. Web site: Watchdog group questions worth of the Heartland Flyer. Ble.org. January 21, 2018. February 7, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090207073522/http://www.ble.org/pr/archive/headline0625a.html. dead.
  18. He received the Texas Department of Criminal Justice ID#999356.
  19. Web site: Mexico makes last-ditch effort to stop serial killer's execution. 27 June 2006. The Denver Post. 27 August 2023.
  20. "Resendiz, Angel Maturino ." Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
  21. Web site: 'Railroad Killer' executed in Texas. 2006-06-27. NBC News. 5 November 2021.
  22. http://www.internationaljusticeproject.org/illnessAMResendiz.cfm Angel Maturino Resendiz
  23. https://web.archive.org/web/20110927060130/http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/resendizangel.htm Texas Department of Criminal Justice profile of Angel Maturino Resendiz
  24. "Web site: US 'railroad killer' put to death. BBC. June 28, 2006. May 20, 2010.
  25. Web site: Wayne & Mary/Holly/Linda. .
  26. Web site: Live to Tell: The Railroad Killer. Aguiar. Lourdes. September 2, 2017. CBS News, Forty Eight Hours. en. February 25, 2019.
  27. Web site: Dead Man Talking: The Tape and 15 other episodes. Hannaford. Alex. October 2, 2018. AudioBoom. en. February 25, 2019.